Winterbirth, by Brian Ruckley. A good old-fashioned sword-swinging dark fantasy romp. Slightly uneven in patches, and it could go a little better with the pace, but it’s still definitely worth a go.

CurrentVellum and Ink, by Hal Duncan. Not for the faint-hearted; not if you like your head all in one place. Fascinating stuff, though.

The Edible Woman, by Margaret Atwood. Her first novel, which established her as a writer to keep reading. Sharp, witty and exploratory, it displays confidence but not as much comfort with writing as her later works, and is even more desirable a read because of that. Any flaws, I can forgive, because, well, it’s Margaret Atwood, damn it!

The Stone Gods, by Jeannette Winterson. Good so far; I’ve only just started it. It seems to be intelligent and meaningful in the way that all scifi/specfi tries to be but which so few manage to attain.

Spirit Gate, by Kate Elliott. Nearly finished this one. It’s good, with interesting characters and fantastic elements which are truly original, but, like some of her other stuff, it could be a little shorter. Nevertheless, an enjoyable read for all of that.

This Sweet Sickness, by Patricia Highsmith. Because I adore Highsmith. She describes creeping insanity, frailty, doubt, paranoia, insane passion and moral turpitude without peer. She was cranky, misanthropic and doubtless cracked in the head, but she was touched by genius, and I will always be a Highsmith-ite.

That’s bloody impressive… I can manage three or four a month, when I’m not involved with a project. It slips when I’m writing, though — I tire pretty easily and lose focus, so at the moment it’s about a book a fortnight.

Wow…I didn’t know that sort of rate and retention was possible. Looks like my own commitment to reading could use some work. There are just so many books though! And I really take my time with them…re-reading passages, going back and forth, etc.

Wow…I didn’t know that sort of rate and retention was possible. Looks like my own commitment to reading could use some work. There are just so many books though! And I really take my time with them…re-reading passages, going back and forth, etc. But I think I do take too long with my reading. I watch movies the same way — on DVD, and with liberal use of the pause, stop, rewind and subtitle functions.

Ummm… I don’t know. I just glance at a paragraph and it sort of reads itself into my brain all at once. It doesn’t work for anything beyond about three or four lines, but it does speed things up considerably.